Rockbottom1964

In South Africa, the sale – even transport - of alcohol has been banned
as part of the Lockdown here. Home-made apple-cider, pineapple beer, ginger-beer,
“traditional” beer (made from sorghum), and, and – people here have tried them
all in the last month. The booze black-market, of course, is flourishing; a bottle
of whisky, brandy, etc. Â – if you can
find one – goes for three to four times its normal price, sometimes more. At
least one person has died from drinking hand-sanitizer that contained alcohol.
Many people have been beaten up (at least one died) by police and soldiers, for
drinking. Thousands have been arrested for buying and/or transporting alcohol.

The one thing all of these people have in common is that they can’t
wait until they can legally buy booze again. When they can get drunk again. In
an open letter to Parliament last week, a Psychiatrist wrote that “forced
sobriety has a ZERO percent chance of working. Not one or two percent – but a
ZERO percent chance. Â It has to be a
personal choice”.

I live with two alcoholics – dad and stepmom – and when I see and smell
some of the stuff they drink for its alcohol content, I’m so very, very glad
that my sobriety was and is a choice; that even when “legal” booze is sold
again, I won’t be going there…

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Notch8

Here in Pennsylvania, hard liquor is only sold in state stores. They've been closed for weeks but have offered mail order on a limited bases and recently started curbside pickup. Beer and wine have been available at some local grocery stores, and some beer distributors are doing curbside pickup.
I hate to say it, but if alcohol sales were outlawed, we'd have looting for sure.

Rockbottom1964

There's been plenty of looting here, Notch. Liquor stores, taverns, bars...Dozens - if not hundreds - have been broken into and robbed. And there will be plenty more if the government doesn't amend the No-alcohol and cigarettes rule.

Funki

Part of the reason that most states didn't close liquor stores, which was confirmed by a doctor on the news, is that you can have a bunch of people going into forced detox/withdrawals and needing medical attention, impacting an already impacted medical system. That's purely a pragmatic issue. Also, as the original poster said, it's unlikely to solve anything for sobriety in general once it opens back up.

Rockbottom1964

Here, unfortunately, just the opposite was done; In typical African style, the South African government has decided that the 5000+ (hugely exaggerated numbers, I'll bet) hospital beds taken up weekly by alcohol related crime and/or related accidents, should now be used for COVID 19 casualties. To date - after 7 weeks, less than 140 people have died from the virus, a fraction of the alcohol-related deaths during the same time, I'm sure...And I'm not "politicking"; just stating facts.